Shore Thing

The time has come once again for me to sing the praises of Brandon Sanderson's Skyward series, a science fiction saga centered on human descendants eking out a meager existence on a barren world, in the face of aliens bent on their destruction. In the core four book series, three have been released so far. Amid that, a trilogy of novellas has also arrived, co-written by Janci Patterson; today, I'm looking at the last of those, Evershore.

The novellas each shift the focus from main protagonist Spensa to one of the other characters in her orbit. Evershore focuses on Jorgen, by-the-book flight leader who is forced to throw that book out the window in the wake of a tragedy just to hold everything together. Evershore also forms vital connective tissue with new characters who were introduced in book two of the main series, Starsight.

While the concluding book four of the main saga has yet to arrive, at this point, I cannot imagine how these three novellas could possibly be "optional" to the full experience. This is not a case of George R. R. Martin traipsing off to write historical back stories instead of finishing his Ice and Fire books, or Robert Jordan side-tripping to a prequel and ultimately not completing his Wheel of Time series on his own terms. These novellas have all been vital parts of the story, and compelling in their own right.

That said, I do think that novella three, Evershore, is probably the weakest of the lot. (By a small degree.) I find Jorgen a challenging character to shift the narrative onto, as he's something of a "superhero" in a story that very much already has one in the main books. Yes, he is riddled with doubts, and is certainly a rounded character. Still, his capabilities are vast, the respect afforded to him by other characters is considerable, and there can be little questioning that he will triumph in the end.

It doesn't help that any opposition to him in this story feels rather weak and underdeveloped. Evershore introduces a new Vice Admiral character to the mix that is ostensibly a savvy political actor setting Jorgen up for a fall -- but he's too soft-spined to amount to more than a distraction. Still, it's awfully deep into this saga for me to be mounting anything remotely like a "Mary Sue" criticism against any of the characters, and in particular it's nice for Jorgen to rack up a few wins at this point. (Points for diversity: in Skyward, the two major characters are a woman and a black man.)

Also notable in my case, as I've listened to all the Skyward books in audiobook format, it's fun for narrator Suzy Jackson to take on a first-person narrative in which the main character is male. She's been doing Jorgen's voice all along, of course, but in Evershore it's a full-time job rather than just something called up for dialogue. It's a fun thwarting of audiobook convention. Suzy Jackson had already convinced me she can do pretty much anything, and she can do this too.

Despite minor quibbles, Evershore is still quite enjoyable. I give it a B+. It gives me one more opportunity to plug the series before the final book is published (reportedly, some time in 2023).